Leke Abe­jide foun­da­tion em­pow­ers women for self reliance

THE LEKE ABE JIDE FOUN­DA­TION (LAF) has dis­bursed the sum of N20,000 as busi­ness sup­port each to 100 women drawn from the three lo­cal gov­ern­ment ar­eas in Yagba land, Kogi State.

Founder of the foun­da­tion, El­der Leke Abe­jide, dis­closed that ten women each were se­lected for the em­pow­er­ment pro­gramme from the ten wards in each of the three lo­cal coun­cils.

In ad­di­tion, the phi­lan­thropist said the foun­da­tion also paid for the West African Ex­am­i­na­tion Coun­cil’s (WAEC) fees of about 2000 fi­nal year stu­dents in pub­lic sec­ondary schools drawn from the three lo­cal coun­cils of Yagba East, Yagba West and Mopa-Muro.

Abe­jide dis­closed that about #40 mil­lion was ex­pended in re­spect of these phil­an­thropic ges­tures to as­suage the bur­den of par­ents and guardians who find it in the three LGAs who to set­tle the WAEC fees of their wards.

Speak­ing at the em­pow­er­ment fo­rum held in Isanlu, head­quar­ters of Yagba East LGA, at the week­end, Abe­jide dis­closed that the pro­gramme was con­ceived to sup­port ed­u­ca­tional de­vel­op­ment in the three ben­e­fit­ting LGAs.

Ac­cord­ing to the founder of the Foun­da­tion, the pro­gramme was a 5-year plan that en­tails a yearly pay­ment of WAEC fees for all the fi­nal year stu­dents in pub­lic sec­ondary schools in the LGAs.

In ad­di­tion to the pay­ment of the WAEC fees, the ini­tia­tor of the Foun­da­tion, stated that the Foun­da­tion had also paid a to­tal of about #2.2 mil­lion be­ing ex­tra fees that are usu­ally paid by par­ents to schools au­thor­i­ties as ad­min­is­tra­tive charges for the ex­am­i­na­tion.

“The idea of es­tab­lish­ment the Leke Abe­jide Foun­da­tion was borne out of our quest to give back to the so­ci­ety through sup­port­ing so­cio-eco­nomic ac­tiv­i­ties that are aimed at bring­ing smile to the faces of in­di­gent and less priv­i­leged ones in the so­ci­ety.

“The hu­man­i­tar­ian ac­tiv­i­ties of the Foun­da­tion first started in 2004, when Foun­da­tion put in place a Free Ed­u­ca­tion Scheme for stu­dents of Alu Sec­ondary School, my Alma-Ata, this we fol­lowed up with a Women Em­pow­er­ment Pro­gramme in the three LGAs», he said.

Ear­lier in his ad­dress, Shola Ade­bola, direc­tor gen­eral of the foun­da­tion, who give an in­sight into the na­ture of the ac­tiv­i­ties of the Foun­da­tion, de­scribed the or­gan­i­sa­tion as a non-re­li­gious, non-Po­lit­i­cal, non-tribal, and not for profit or­gan­i­sa­tion con­ceived to as­sist in­di­gent Nige­ri­ans.

Ade­bola re­vealed that the hu­man­i­tar­ian ob­jec­tives of the foun­da­tion were an­chored on the prin­ci­ples in­cul­cated into the founder of the foun­da­tion by his par­ents,

The idea of es­tab­lish­ment the Leke Abe­jide Foun­da­tion was borne out of our quest to give back to the so­ci­ety through sup­port­ing so­cio-eco­nomic ac­tiv­i­ties that are aimed at bring­ing smile to the faces of in­di­gent and less priv­i­leged ones in the so­ci­ety

which are hard­work and fear of God’

The DG charged the ben­e­fit­ting stu­dents to take ad­van­tage of the op­por­tu­nity which they have been of­fered with the pay­ment of their WAEC fees, and work hard in or­der to be suc­cess­ful in the exam.

The high point of the event which was wit­nessed by a col­lec­tion of tra­di­tional rulers from Yagba East LGA led by the act­ing chair­man of the LGA’’s Tra­di­tional Coun­cil, Oba S.A Mo­hammed, Oluko­tun of Ife-Oluko­tun, was the pre­sen­ta­tion of che­ques of the WAEC pay­ment by El­der Leke Abe­jide to each of the ben­e­fit­ting schools.

Sim­i­lar, events were ear­lier held at Mopa, head­quar­ters of Mopa – Muro LGA, and in Odo-Eri in Yagba West LGA.